Universities losing favour overseas

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Foreign students looking at Australian universities have not
seen a rise in quality to match the recent sharp rise in costs, and
many are now heading elsewhere, according to research presented at
an international education conference in Sydney.

Overseas students now spend more to live in Australia than their
peers pay to stay in prestigious education hubs such as the US; so
for local universities to hold their multibillion-dollar share of
the global market, perceived quality must go up, said researchers
from IDP Australia, the foreign recruitment organisation co-owned
by 38 Australian universities.

An IDP report, Factors Impacting on International Student
Enrolments in Australia, says that "in some markets students
believe that they can get more from an education in another country
at a cost comparable to Australia".

Since 2001, the annual cost of studying in Australia has risen
by more than 180 per cent for Thai students and by more than 80 per
cent for the important source countries of Hong Kong, Malaysia and
Indonesia, driven by a 33 per cent increase in the value of the
dollar and rising tuition fees.

But with the year's new enrolments from five of the top 10
source countries down, the IDP research says that "it appears
students perceive that they are receiving much the same service and
product as in 2001".

When the Australian National University released a $520,000
independent report last month showing that much of its research was
in the world's top 5 per cent, the vice-chancellor, Ian Chubb, said
such comparative quality testing - while not officially required -
was important for global advertising because it provided clear
grounds for deciding where to study.

Yet, the chief executive of the Australian Vice-Chancellors'
Executive, John Mullarvey, said the Australian system already had
much inbuilt quality assurance.